On the Trail with the Sierra Club. 6i 



mountains, follow the backs of ridges, hit meadows 

 enough to keep life in the pack-animals, and not miss the 

 fords and the gaps. Thus it was not surprising that the 

 real distance to Mt. Whitney was placed somewhere be- 

 tween thirty and forty miles. A pioneer party, composed 

 of about forty persons under the leadership of Professor 

 Le Conte, started on the 5th of July, making the ascent 

 successfully, and by dint of forced marches returning 

 to Camp Olney in six days. The main party, composed 

 of one hundred and eight persons, started on the 9th 

 of July, and planned to make the trip in seven days. 

 Most of the members of both parties were seasoned climb- 

 ers, including a number of Mazamas from Portland. 

 The approach to Mt. Whitney was made by the Volcano 

 Creek trail and the return by the Kern River Canon. 

 The size of the party and the limited number of pack- 

 animals available produced some unexpected complica- 

 tions, with the result that some of us, without our sleep- 

 ing-bags in a freezing temperature, cheerfully slept 

 away part of the first night between a log and a fire. 

 Onward and upward we went the next day, still following 

 Volcano Creek, whose teeming population of famous 

 golden trout was laid under tribute to our rods and appe- 

 tites. Volumes might be written on what we saw this 

 and the following day, as our path led over lava-beds, 

 past an extinct crater where but recently Nature blew her 

 volcanic forges, over closely matted rosettes of a rare 

 and beautiful evening primrose (CEnothera xylocarpa), 

 over golden acres of Mimuli, through zone after zone 

 of vegetation, over the sandy waste of the Siberian 

 outpost, into the deeply carved cafion of Rock Creek, 

 hard by the spire of Mt. Guyot, to the third night's 



